For lawyers, accountants and tax advisers

Your client is asking about Cyprus

This page is written for you rather than for them. Doviandi is a licensed Cyprus administrative service provider. On a referred engagement we take the Cyprus end of the question and nothing beyond it, the client stays yours, and no fee passes in either direction. Before any of that, you can put a situation to us and get a scoping reply at no charge.

What we commit to before anything else

No domestic work: We do not accept your client’s work in your jurisdiction, at any point.
No going direct: We do not contract around you or take the relationship direct.
You stay lead: Copied on the correspondence, and in the meetings if you want to be.
Anything else comes back: If the client asks us about something outside Cyprus, we send them to you.

It costs us nothing, because we are not licensed to do your work and have no intention of trying. It is written here so you do not have to take it on trust, and we will put it in a short written arrangement if you would rather have one.

Where the line sits

Figure How a referred engagement runs, and who holds what The client deals with their own adviser throughout. The adviser puts the Cyprus question to Doviandi and receives a scoping reply. Everything on the departure side, the exit charge, controlled foreign company rules, the home authority’s own assessment of where the company is managed, and domestic personal tax, stays with the referring adviser. Doviandi builds and evidences where the Cyprus company is managed; what the home authority and any treaty tie-breaker make of those same facts is the referring adviser’s question. Doviandi handles only the Cyprus company, the intellectual property regime, Cyprus tax residence and substance, and the Cyprus filings. No fee passes in either direction and each firm bills its own client for its own work.

What we do

Cyprus company formation and administration
The intellectual property regime, the nexus computation and the record behind it
Cyprus tax residence, economic substance, resident directors, and the record evidencing where the company is managed
Accounting, VAT and the statutory filings
Where the client is relocating, their Cyprus residence and non-domiciled position

What we never do

Advise on the law of any country other than Cyprus
The exit charge on departure
Controlled foreign company rules
What your own authority, or a treaty tie-breaker, makes of where the company is managed
Personal tax in the country being left

Those are yours. They usually decide the answer, and they come first.

How a referral runs

1
You send the situation, not the client
What the business does, where the people are tax resident, and what they are trying to achieve. No names needed at this stage.
2
You get a scoping reply, usually within one working day
Three things and no more: whether Cyprus is plausibly relevant to the facts as you have described them, what the answer would turn on, and the order of cost. It is triage rather than advice, it is free, and it frequently says that Cyprus does nothing for them.
3
If it goes ahead, you make the introduction
The engagement is scoped to the Cyprus work only, and your client sees you directing it.
4
We run our own client due diligence
As a licensed provider we are required to identify the beneficial owner ourselves and hold that file. Anything you have gathered shortens the process but cannot stand in for our own checks.

No fee passes in either direction

We do not pay for introductions and we do not accept payment for making them. Each firm bills its own client for its own work.

This is not modesty. Section 9 of the German Steuerberatungsgesetz makes the giving or receiving of any part of fees, or other benefits, for the referral of work impermissible, whether between tax advisers or with a third party of any kind. Most European professions carry something equivalent. A commission arrangement asks you to take a professional risk in order to introduce us, which is a poor way to begin.

It also keeps our own position clean. Our engagement letter is with the client and the beneficial owner directly and states our fees in full, so there is no arrangement behind it that your client could later discover.

Who you would be introducing

A single-principal firm, licensed by ICPAC since 2014. The work is Cyprus corporate structuring, intellectual property and relocation, for internationally mobile businesses and the people who own them. Everything published on this site is written from primary sources and names the date it was last reviewed, which is the quickest way to judge whether we know the subject before you introduce anyone.

Key facts
Legal name	Doviandi Limited
Company number	HE331078
Regulator	Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Cyprus (ICPAC)
ICPAC certificate	E645/F/2014
Licensed since	2014
Principal	Chris Parpas BFP FCA ICPAC

The certificate is verifiable on the ICPAC register of administrative service providers and the company number on the Cyprus Registrar. We would rather you checked.

Questions advisers ask first

Can I refer a client to a Cyprus firm without losing them?

With Doviandi, yes, and it is written down rather than assumed. Where you introduce a client we do not accept their domestic work in your jurisdiction at any point, we do not contract around you, and you remain lead adviser throughout. If the client asks us about anything outside Cyprus we send them back to you. We will put that in a short written arrangement on request.

Do Cyprus administrative service providers pay referral fees?

Some offer them. Doviandi does not, in either direction, and declines them when offered. Section 9 of the German Steuerberatungsgesetz makes the giving or receiving of any part of fees, or other benefits, for the referral of work impermissible, and most European professions carry an equivalent restriction. Each firm bills its own client for its own work.

What can a Cyprus firm do for my client, and what stays with me?

Doviandi handles Cyprus company formation and administration, the intellectual property regime and its nexus computation, Cyprus tax residence and the substance supporting it, resident directors, accounting, VAT and statutory filings, and where the client is relocating, their Cyprus residence and non-domiciled position. Everything on the departure side stays with you: the exit charge, controlled foreign company rules, what your own authority or a treaty tie-breaker makes of where the company is managed, and domestic personal tax. Those usually decide the answer. On management specifically the two sides overlap by nature: Doviandi builds and evidences where the Cyprus company is actually managed, and you assess what your authority makes of those same facts.

Can a Cyprus provider rely on the due diligence I have already done?

Not as a substitute. A licensed Cyprus administrative service provider is required to identify the beneficial owner itself and to hold that file, and the ICPAC practice guide places that obligation on the provider rather than on an introducer. Material you have already gathered is a useful starting point and shortens the process, but it does not replace our own checks.

How do I find out whether Cyprus is even the right answer?

Send the situation without the client name. Doviandi replies in writing, usually within one working day, covering three things: whether Cyprus is plausibly relevant to the facts as described, what the answer would turn on, and the order of cost. There is no charge and no obligation. It is scoping rather than advice, it is given on the facts as you have summarised them and not on the client’s actual position, and it is not a basis for the client to act on. Where it looks worth pursuing, the position itself is given under a written engagement.

No commitment either way

Send a situation

No client name, no obligation. If Cyprus is not the answer we will say so, which is the fastest way to find out whether we are worth introducing anyone to.

What you get, and on what basis

A written reply covering three things: whether Cyprus is plausibly relevant to the facts as you have described them, what the answer would turn on, and the order of cost. Usually within one working day, from the principal, at no charge.

It is scoping rather than advice. It is given on your summary rather than on your client's actual position, it is not a Cyprus tax or legal opinion, and it is not something your client should act on or be given as advice. Where it looks worth pursuing, the position itself is given under a written engagement with its own terms.